Jotted Lines

A Collection Of Essays

Menu
  • Literature
  • Media Studies
  • History
  • Management
  • Philosophy
  • Economics
  • Gender Studies
  • Psychology
  • Law
Menu

Tag: Last Courtesies

Last Courtesies – Analysis

Posted on September 22, 2022September 22, 2022 by JL Admin

 “Last Courtesies” won the O. Henry Award in 1977, shortly after the short story’s first appearance in print, in a 1976  Harper’s Magazine . When the collection  Last Courtesies  was published in 1980, John Romano, for the  New York Times , described the collection as a series of “sad tales” which contain characters who are…

Last Courtesies – Setting

Posted on September 22, 2022September 22, 2022 by JL Admin

 1970s in the United States  During the 1970s, a new generation of young adults examined, criticized, and in some cases totally discarded the former generation’s ways. Established concepts about friendship, sexuality, marriage, race relations and ethnicity, war, and women’s rights were challenged and transformed. The ongoing Vietnam War (1959–1975), which was ultimately lost by the…

Last Courtesies – Literary Devices

Posted on September 22, 2022September 22, 2022 by JL Admin

 Suspense  Suspense in this short story is created out of fear of others. Vladimir is so eccentric he is hard to understand. His emotions are unstable and some of his actions are unsociable. He is as likely to explode as he is to read poetry or play a piano composition by Bach. So when the…

Last Courtesies – Themes

Posted on September 22, 2022September 22, 2022 by JL Admin

 Alienation  In one way or another, all of the characters in Leffland’s short story “Last Courtesies” live isolated lives. The least alienated may be Jody, even though she is described as having many male suitors come to her apartment each night (and Vladimir calls her as a prostitute). On one level, Jody appears to be…

Last Courtesies – Characters

Posted on September 22, 2022September 22, 2022 by JL Admin

 Aunt Bedelia  Bedelia, aunt of the protagonist Lillian, has already died when the story begins, but there are flashback scenes in which the narrator describes the elderly woman with whom she lived. Intelligent, gracious, and refined in an old-fashioned way, Bedelia is well educated in the arts and well traveled. She brings out the best…

Last Courtesies – Summary

Posted on September 21, 2022September 21, 2022 by JL Admin

 Ella Leffland’s  Last Courtesies  begins with a comment about the protagonist Lillian. Vladimir, the Russian piano tuner, tells her she is “too polite.” Lillian disagrees. Lillian does not push people in the bus line, but she does “fire off censorious glares.” Thus, according to Lillian, she is far from being too polite. She is merely…

©2025 Jotted Lines | Built using WordPress and Responsive Blogily theme by Superb